I Will Not Fall
by BlackBird-21
Summary: Her whole life she's been told that she's special, different. She believes she's as ordinary as one could get. Little does she know how special she really is. And how her life is endangered because of it. All alone, how will she win? Title/Summary change.


_**TITLE CHANGE, SUMMARY CHANGE! WAS A LESSON TO LEARN!**_

**Okay, guys, here's the Pokemon fanfic I promised. I know it's short, but I really hope y'all like it! Now, as it says below, this is just the prologue, the set-up, for the real story. It will hopefully get much better later on, but sadly I can't make many promises with this one. Okay well, on with the chapter!  
P.S. I apoligize ahead of time for any spelling errors and/or grammatical mistakes. My Microsoft Word is from 1998 and doesnt understand things sometimes.  
P.S.S. New title inspired by "I Will Not Bow" by Breaking Benjamin**

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**I Will Not Fall**

**Prologue: A Legendary Tale**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, it belongs to... well whoever created it (I forgot)! Any name or idea in this story that is the same as another is purely coincidental!**

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"They're getting closer, Arceus," said the young woman anxiously, a grave and frightened expression on her face as she watched and listened to the battle between her land and her enemy's rage on. She spoke to the creature behind her without turning around. She couldn't help but feel complete anguish at the fact that although it was HER land-soon-to-be, she couldn't do anything to stop the murder and bloodshed of humans and Pokemon alike or influence another alternative, one that did not include fighting.

The woman heard a small drop of some semi-thick liquid hit the cold stone floor of her balcony. She turned around to face the massive creature she talked to.

"You're in no shape to fight, my friend…" she said even more anxiously, looking at the legendary Pokemon with worry and guilt before assessing his injuries. "But perhaps there is a spell o-or a potion that should heal you. I will go and fetch Nanny, she's sure to know something, she taught me everything I know! You just wait here, I'll be right—"

"Wait, Emily…" implored her friend faintly, his voice rough and weak as he interrupted her. The woman stopped in her tracks and stared back at him. His exhaustion was getting the better of him and his strong stance faltered. The blood leaking from his wounds began to make a small pool upon the stone floor. "Do not go… There is no need. I fear there is Dark Magick about… that nothing could cure. I must embrace my Time warmly for this is how it has to be."

"Arceus, don't say such a thing! You shall live, I'll make sure of it! Have hope, have faith in me! Please!" A tear or two started to slip down Emily's check though she hardly noticed. She was too focused on her dying friend. To think, her advisor (though her parents and Nanny didn't know about it), the great, powerful, invincible Arceus dying before her eyes!

Arceus's control finally slipped and he fell to the ground, his bright white fur, the color of the palest of orchids, now stained a dark royal crimson. The contrast between the two was almost frightening.

Emily rushed to her dear friend's side, knowing she couldn't do anything to help at this point, but trying to fight for the lost cause anyway.

"No! Arceus, you must stand up, now! Stand, I say, that's an order!" Her tears fell freely now, her hands in a vice-like grip around Arceus's fur. "You can't do this to me, my friend! Stand up!" her voice was commanding, the kind of voice a soon-to-be queen should have, marred only by her defeated façade and a tone of utter surrender.

"Hear what I have… to say, Emily," his voice was now weaker than ever, only just a whisper, and the intervals between which his eyes opened from a blink became longer every second. "I know you will make… a fine queen one day… without me…"

"No, I need you, my friend! How will I be able to guide my people without the help of your wisdom? Who will I be able to talk to? You know for a fact that I have no one to confide in this dreadful castle!" Now her voice was panicky and held a tinge of anger. Anger at the lands, for fighting; anger at her parents, for never being there; anger at Arceus, for dying.

"You know you must not… worry about such trivial matters…" Weaker, weaker. "Worrying never solves… the problem, nor gets you any closer… to the answer. I know you will do… great things with your life... my friend..." Gone. All Gone. Gone, never coming back. Just gone. Gone forever.

The princess finally gave into her emotions, sobbing long and hard. Eventually, a headache came her way, but she didn't care. She just wanted her friend back, the one friend she could talk to, not Nanny, not her servants, not anyone else she knew. But he was never coming back…

After a long while, when Arceus's corpse became cold and firm, the woman stood up, swaying slightly on her feet. With her eyes bloodshot, tearstains on her cheeks and her clothes creased, she walked calmly with dignity to her sleeping quarters. She didn't pass any servants one the way and she was thankful for she did not want to be ushered into a stuffy room full of generals and advisors and her parents.

As she entered her chambers she paused. She gazed at the ornate gold, silver, and purple decorations adorning the walls, the elegant handcrafted wood pieces such as the head- and footboard on her bed, the rather large wardrobe and her vanity desk with it's matching mirror, its pure gold trimmings glinting in the candlelight.

When she couldn't take anymore of the beautiful and elaborate royal designing, she ran forward with a small cry of anguish and yanked at the drapes, doing whatever she could to rip the fine cloth in two. When she tired of this task, she moved to her vanity desk and knocked the entire thing over, her mirror crashing and shattering upon the floor, her make-up and small jewels thrown against the wall and crushed by the weight of the desk. Her next inanimate victim was the bed. She tore the sheets off, throwing them to the side, pulling at her pillows until she ripped those in two as well, the brilliantly white Altaria down flying all over. She clawed at her luxurious mattress before picking it up throwing it against the wall with surprising strength. As she was about to make for the polished headboard, she paused abruptly. There… lying right beside the crumpled mattress…How could she have forgotten all about it?!

Slowly, now with a new assignment at hand, Emily walked towards the large, thick, dark gold book. She carefully picked it up--she had forgotten how tender it looked, it's leather covering looking like it had suffered much abuse and its pages as if it had been in some sort of fire—even though she knew it could not be destroyed. The queen soon-to-be sat down with a look of speculation on her face. This book could help her…This book, the spell book Nanny had given to her after she had completed her training, just might have an answer for her…

Haltingly, Princess Emily opened the worn book to the last section. If her answer were here, it would be in the last few pages…the spells that were the most dangerous to perform were always in the back. She skimmed the pages carefully, not wanting to miss anything. There had to be some kind of incantation that would help her somewhere!

She was reaching the last couple of pages in the book now and she was beginning to lose hope. As she came to the last page in the book, she glanced at what the spell would be used for and how to use it. At last! This was it! This was the answer!

Emily rose to her feet quickly, stumbling a bit from the quick dizziness that attacked her, then ran with the book back to the balcony. If she was lucky, no one had been dismissed from the strategy meeting yet and had come upon the body. Her fear dissipated as she saw Arceus lying on the ground lifelessy, the blood around him in its final stages of drying up, clinging and crusting to the stained fur of what was left of her friend.

She walked strongly towards the corpse, her eyes utterly sad, but her mouth upturned in a smile. She leaned down over Arceus's slumped head and whispered in his limp, fur-covered ear, "Everything will be alright now, my friend. Everything will finally turn out the way it should have." She pulled herself back up and stood a few paces away from the body, where she could see his charcoal-gray face, held the book ready in her hands, and began to read the incantation in the Forsaken Language she had been taught.

As she spoke, the princess began to glow with a blue-white light, faint at first, but growing brighter with every word. The same happened to Arceus, only his glow was a pinkish-white. Along with the glow came a nonexistent wind, weak at first, but growing stronger as well. It caused Emily's elegant dress and long brown hair to dance a fast-paced Waltz and whipped at her friend's white fur. As the light grew brighter and the wind grew stronger, Emily could have sworn she heard a shrill scream behind her, but she didn't pause the spell; she was too far along to pause anyway.

The light grew so bright and the wind so strong that Emily could no longer see the words in the spell book. But it didn't matter; the spell provided her with the sayings as she spoke. The light and the wind kept growing and growing. Emily was beginning to regret the decision to use the incantation when everything suddenly stopped. The wind was gone and the light had faded, just like that.

Emily opened her eyes; she didn't realize she had closed them. But when she was able to see again, she gasped with so much shock her lungs could hardly stand the sudden intake of oxygen.

Arceus was gone.

What happened? He was supposed to be standing there, giving her words of much thanks, praising her for her skill, telling her how happy he was to be back in the world of the living again!

"What have you done…?" she heard faintly. Was that Arceus's voice?! Then he was here, wasn't he?!

More screaming… Was that Nanny? Emily didn't care. All she wanted to know was why Arceus wasn't there! But her answer would have to wait as exhaustion overtook Emily with such force, she passed out before she hit the ground.

Emily woke slowly. What had happened…? Oh, that's right, Arceus had died…She had been trying to revive him…But where was he? The spell had worked, hadn't it? She had heard Arceus speak to her! …Didn't she?

"Hmph, finally awake now, are we, dolly?" said an old, stern, angry voice beside her. Nanny? Wasn't Nanny supposed to be at the strategy meeting though? "That spell you preformed was very dangerous, dolly, very dangerous indeed! Why you preformed such a spell in the first place though, I'll probably never know! Yet I cannot help but demand, dolly, that you tell me WHY you felt you had to put your own life at risk to perform a spell like that!" Nanny's voice was indeed very demanding, yet Emily didn't answer.

"Arceus…" she said, tired and confused. "Where is Arceus? Where has he gone?"

"Arceus?" Nanny was startled. Whatever it was she had expected to hear, it most definitely was not about Arceus. "Why… that legendary Pokemon…? The one said to have created the universe with his one thousand arms? Why would you ever need to know of _him_?"

"Where is Arceus?" Emily repeated, more forcefully this time. "I must know where Arceus is! Tell me!" Now that her strength was very slowly returning to her, she was becoming insistent.

"Dolly, Arceus's whereabouts are none of your concern! He is most likely somewhere far away, farther than any human or Pokemon would be able to go. After all, he _is_ the most legendary Pokemon known to this world! You should be much more worried about your health, after all…" Emily wasn't listening as her mentor gushed about how reckless her actions her. She was too busy searching every corner of the room with her eyes (she was much too weak to stand, she knew) for her friend. As her vision passed over the unfamiliar furniture and other décor, she realized this was not her room. That's right, she thought. I demolished my room after Arceus…after he… But she couldn't bring herself to even think the words.

Her sight finally rested on the bed she lay on, its soft greens and yellows very pleasing to the eye, but what caught her attention was the spell book lying at the foot of her bed. Of course! Her book would explain to her what had happened!

"Leave Nanny," she ordered, Nanny in the middle of a sentence. "I am weary and in need of more rest" It wasn't much of a lie for she was still tired from the night's ordeal, despite receiving how many hours of sleep afterwards.

Nanny paused and looked at her former apprentice with a mixture of worry, pity, and even a bit of surprise. Though, her face softened and became calm and blank. She stood, gave a slight bow to the princess, and left the room wordlessly.

Emily waited a few moments after Nanny had closed the door then used what little strength she had to reach for her book. When she had grasped it, she sat back against the fluffy pillows and tore through the pages until she found the spell. Carefully this time, she read the words on the page:

_Animus Carcer_(1)

_Use:__ To save one's soul from passing on into the otherworld, therefore the person who once possessed said soul never truly dies unless it is released from the host (born a second time or forcibly removed) in which time it shall then live and die as if never reborn_

_If the spell should so succeed, the soul will reside in the body of the Castor, using his/her energy until the soul is strong enough to become whole again, in which case the soul will leave the Castor's body and enter a second life with full knowledge and memories of the first (one must remember that memories stay within the soul). If the soul takes more than one Castor's lifetime, the soul shall pass down to the first born child of the Castor's gender until the soul has regained enough energy to leave it's host. If the Castor should have no children to pass the soul on to, the soul shall then die along with the Castor._

_If the spell should be preformed incorrectly, the soul of the Castor along with the other shall both perish, never to be reincarnated once more._

_*The Castor must note that much is not known about this spell and that if he/she should proceed, proceed with much caution for one can never truly know the possible consequences of Magick that could result in Casting._

"No…" breathed Emily once she had finished reading the passage. "No!" She threw the book against the stone wall where it bounced against one of the small torches, causing its flame to die out. She pulled at her hair and clenched her brown eyes shut. What had she _done?!_ She didn't revive Arceus! She made him a prisoner, trapped in her body for who knows how long! She should have let her friend pass on and accepted her grief, _that_ was the way it should be, not like this!

The queen-soon-to-be rocked back and forth on the bed, finally becoming numb to the world's actions. She didn't care anymore… She just wanted to die herself, to stop living, to stop feeling so much pain…

But she couldn't. No, she _had_ to stay alive! She had yet to give herself up to a man and start a family of her own. The book had said that if she did not have children, the soul would die along with her. She couldn't do that to Arceus, not when he still had a chance to live again! So what if he was trapped within her, at least that meant he would one day be able to feel and think with a body of his own once more!

As Emily resolved her problem, she sunk into the bed and pulled the sheets over her face. It was too much for one night and she became weary once more.

"Don't worry, my friend," she whispered. "You will see and hear and smell and touch and taste for yourself once more. I'll make sure of it." With this last sentiment to the peaceful presence she could only just hardly sense inside her, she closed her eyes and slumbered once again.

* * *

"Whoa, so then what happened Granny?!" implored Ash. A good story always excited him with much curiosity.

"Yeah, what happened to the princess and that legendary?" asked Misty, a small smile upon her face as she looked towards Ash. He had jumped out of his chair and was currently leaning to far across the table to hear Granny more effectively. He's always so jumpy and full of vigor, she thought.

"Did she become queen? Did she marry someone? And Arceus, was he ever freed or did Emily die without children?" begged Tracy, always alive with questions no matter the situation.

The gang had decided to take a small break from their Orange Island adventures. When they had heard of the small, remote island town with a remarkable storyteller, they agreed it would be the best place for a bit of R&R. They had found the storyteller along with an old Ninetales at the back of the island, staring at a small statue in a clearing beside a cliff. The statue was of two teenagers, a boy and a girl, a year or two older than Tracy, and their Pokemon: a large Flying type that looked like a cross between a dragon and a dragonfly that Granny had said was a Flygon, and a larger than normal Ninetales, one very much resembling the Ninetales Granny had only without the wrinkles. The old woman had offered the three travelers a place to stay during their time on the island because there was no Pokemon Center around. Once settled in, the kids had begged her for a story, being told of her amazing abilities to put so much detail and feeling in her tales. She had obliged and decided to tell them the story of Princess Emily and a legendary Pokemon by the name of Arceus, whom she had the honor of calling friend

"Well," began Granny, "they say Emily left royalty. That she decided to pursue a life among the commoners of her land to learn a life of poverty. Her parents along with Nanny thought her mad, crazy, to make such a horrible decision. A queen-soon-to-be, living among the poor and disease-ridden peoples of their land?! They would have none of it, so they disinherited her and stripped her of her nobilities and decided to give the throne to one of her siblings, a younger sister that went by the name of Louisa."

"Oh, that must have been horrible for her!" exclaimed Misty.

"Yes, but word was that she was secretly grateful for it. She knew she wasn't ready to take the throne, not with all the trauma she had gone through that one fateful night."

"And the legendary?!" said Ash. "Was he ever reborn?"

"Or did he die with her?" asked Tracy. Both of the males were out of their seats now, eager to hear more of the tale.

"Oh, Arceus has been living his second life for quite a few years now. Emily married one of the commoners she lived among. His name was Drake and she had three daughters, Arceus's soul passing on to the first-born named Diana of course. Diana eventually married and had a daughter and son of her own, the soul passing on once more. Emily lived long enough to see her great great grandchildren, but she didn't live on to see her dear friend Arceus reborn. No, that didn't happen until Emily's seventh generation, around the time when I was a young girl," stated Granny. "That story is quite a tale as well."

"Oh, will you please tell that story too?" begged Misty.

"Of course, dear," said Granny. She reached down and stroked the Ninetales on the head affectionately. "But in good time. It seems to be getting darker and I would wager your stomachs are empty." As if on cue, Ash's stomach grumbled and growled, like a lion on the hunt that hasn't eaten in days. He scratched his head in embarrassment and waved his hand apologetically. Granny laughed, Misty rolled her eyes. "I thought so. Come, I should have something in the pantry worth eating."

* * *

With their bellies full of good food, teeth brushed, and skin and hair washed clean, the gang gathered on the sofas next to the fireplace. It was a chilly autumn night and the fire crackled and popped, happily doing its job to keep the tenants warm and content.

Granny sat in an old cushioned rocking chair, her Ninetales next to her as always. Granny petted the creature and rocked back and forth a few times, getting comfortable before beginning the tale.

"A long time ago," she began, "a little over half a century ago actually, a child known as Lucie was born to a young woman known as Helen. Lucy was the only child of Helen and the seventh generation of Emily's line…"

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**(1): Soul Prison (if this is a wrong translation, I apoligize, I'm not in Latin class therefore I had to use an online translator)**

***Despite growing up as a Pokemon geek, I'm not all too familirar with the Orange Island adventure so I may have gotten/will get a thing or two wrong, but it doesnt matter because this story will not come back around to the gang and Granny very much if at all.**

**Like I said, short, I know, I'm going to try to work on that next chapter. Speaking of next chapter, I'm about to start writing it in a day or two (school's catchin up on me), but I hope to have it up and posted by next weekend. Again, like I said, no promises, but I will most definately try! Reviews are very much welcome if ya got 'em, flamers are welcome as well because y'all make me laugh. XD Hope y'all enjoyed the prologue and look forward to Chapter 1!**


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